Where would La Toya Jackson be without Michael? That’s a question to which La Toya refuses to find the answer, as nearly two years after his death, La Toya is still riding her brother’s coattails to infamy and fortune.
Her latest exploitive venture is a memoir, Starting Over, half the book dedicated to her relationship with her brother. In her book La Toya makes the controversial claim that Michael Jackson’s personal physician Dr. Conrad Murray is simply a “fall guy” in a larger conspiracy to murder the pop star for his money. While her anguish over the death of her brother is certainly understandable, many of La Toya’s public appearances in promotion of the book seem opportunistic and flat out reprehensible.
Sad thing is, if La Toya is somehow telling the truth about Michael’s death, there isn’t a mentally stable soul who would believe her — she has a history of using Michael for fame, and by all indications, she’s continuing that behavior.
WATCH ‘TODAY SHOW’ INTERVIEW WITH LA TOYA JACKSON:
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It’s no secret that fame was the penultimate goal in the Jackson house, and while Michael got the lion’s share, nearly every sibling had their turn in the bright lights. Though La Toya would paint herself as a reluctant celebrity, later appearances in Playboy magazine, multiple albums, various stints on reality TV, and even a “modeling” career shows she was nothing if not persistent about getting her 15 minutes.
Though fame didn’t come easy, La Toya did get infamy, first for the repeated Playboy appearances, and then more shockingly for her 1993 admission that she believed the allegations of child molestation against her brother could be true. She’s recently recanted that statement, claiming her then-husband threatened her into making the announcement.
But things went from desperate to pathetic once her brother died. Michael’s body had barely gone cold before she was grabbing at the microphone to air her “distress” over the situation, touting conspiracy theories of his death that have become the main platform of her recent celebrity.
I suppose mourning can manifest itself in different ways, but whereas most of the Jackson siblings have chosen to grieve their brother in silence, La Toya was seen leaving Neverland Ranch a few days after Michael’s death with hard drives of his unfinished music.
And while it is understandable to want to keep the memory of your brother alive, it seems as though La Toya took every and any opportunity of her appearance on Celebrity Apprentice to mention Michael — all the way down to the illuminated sidewalk squares (a la “Billie Jean”) as she exited the show.
WATCH LA TOYA’S INFAMOUS ‘CELEBRITY APPRENTICE’ EXIT HERE:
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Even if you were to argue that La Toya’s theories of conspiracy might have some basis, it seems that writing a tell-all book isn’t exactly the best means to serve justice. The Jackson sister claims she personally investigated her brother’s death, and knows all the people responsible for his demise.
And yet when Today Show host Matt Lauer told La Toya he found no names in the book, she simply replied that “you have to read the book.” Sounds more like a ploy to sell books than to solve crimes.
So is La Toya a sister in mourning, or a lady looking to cash out? It’ll be interesting to see what (if any) response the other Jackson siblings will have to La Toya’s media campaign and conspiracy theories. Though La Toya insists they people around Michael plotted to kill the pop star for his wealth, this new book and her many other media appearances indicates that she too is reaping the benefits of his untimely demise.